# trust

**Trust: what a system can have instead of proof**

A system that has run for a long time without a contradiction has good reason to expect it is consistent. Mathematicians trust arithmetic this way: nobody has found a contradiction in centuries, and a stronger system proves it consistent.

It is trust built from outside or from experience, never certainty from inside.

Connects to:
- [free certainty](https://mapideas.org/i/w_free)
- [proof or trust?](https://mapideas.org/i/w_q)
- [outside is trust](https://mapideas.org/i/tr_trust)
- [second theorem](https://mapideas.org/i/th_second)
- [escape routes](https://mapideas.org/i/h_escape)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/w_trust · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#w_trust